Regrets of a past sin
by The Fallen One Winged Angel
Summary: A new member joins the Gullwings, which doesn't sit well with almost all of the crew. But just who is this new guy, and what is he trying to hide from the rest of them. Rated M for Violence/gore, profanity, and possible sexual situations later on. OCx? R
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Alright. My first Fanfic I've ever done…Don't know why, but I felt like doing one for FF X2 when I decided on which one to do first._

_Anyway, this is set in an alternate timeline of FF X2, in which the events during the story about Vegnagun and Shuyin never happened. As in Shuyin did still do the whole crimson squad massacre event before X2, but he was sent away shortly afterwards by a group of summoners performing the sending, and Vegnagun disappeared from existence at some unknown time, slowly fading from everyone's memory till no one knew it had ever existed. It's about 7 months after when the events of X2 should have happened._

_Yes, this story will contain an OC. He will be explained further on into the story, such as his abilities and history. As for how I came up with him…Well, whenever I like something a lot, I tend to make up an OC for it in my mind when I having nothing to do._

_This will definitely involve violence, maybe a little gore, and possibly adult or sexual situations later on. Which is why it's M of course._

_Also, I apologise if I don't call something by their technical name from the game, as I can't remember them al the time, or get them mixed up with something else._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or any parts, characters, settings, etc of it. This is not for profit, as I'm pretty sure I'm not making any money out of it anyway. All for fun._

The three of them sighed loudly as they walked slowly around the strange contraption they'd found in the storage area, examining it from every angle the could as they tried to work out what it was, what it did, and whose it was.

Or, at least, two of them were, with Paine being her usual self and leaning against the door frame, an expression of boredom on her face as she watched the other two continue their slow and steady examination of the object.

"Come on…what's so interesting about this heap of metal and leather, that's getting you two so worked up?" Paine muttered, a hint of annoyance streaked through her voice as the others carried on, not showing any signs of stopping.

"Well, it's just that we've both never seen anything like this before…" Rikku said back, not turning away from the object.

"…And? Is that all?"

Rikku spun around to face Paine, almost glaring at her, before cracking into a wide grin.

"Weelll, I'm an Al Bhed, and Yuna is partly an Al Bhed, so it has to be something pretty special if neither of us have seen machina like this before! Duh!" Rikku tapped the side of her own head with her palm as she said the last part, still grinning at Paine.

"Well, it's a vehicle of some kind, judging from the motor and the controls. Matter of fact, it sort of looks like the controls for the Celsius near the front here, doesn't it?" Yuna asked loudly to the two of them, before she gasped out loudly and jumped back abruptly, when the ice cold metal plate she'd been running her finger slowly along, shifted out of place suddenly from the movement and fell towards the floor, the loud clunk of metal banging against metal echoing throughout the room.

Rikku spun around when she heard this, her eyes wide when she saw what Yuna had done, both of her hands covering her open mouth, the grin disappearing from her face.

"AHHH! Yunie, You broke it!" Rikku squealed through her hands, her voice going high pitched as she stared at the metal plate on the floor.

"I didn't mean to!" Yuna whimpered back, crouching down to pick up the metal plate, holding it up in front of her with both of her arms.

Paine couldn't help but smile slightly as she watched the two of them begin to panic hysterically, running around like headless chickens with the metal plate, trying to decide what to do with it, before she got off the doorway and walked over to the two of them, grabbing the two of them by their shoulders tightly, stopping them in their tracks.

"Calm down. I'm sure the two of you will be able to reattach it, if it was that easy to knock off."

The two of them nodded and crouched back down next to the veichle, examining the area the metal plate had fallen off for a moment, before they shoved the metal plate against the vehicle, smiling when they heard a loud click and saw the metal plate stay in place when they moved their hands away.

"Yay! It's fixed! Now we're not in trouble!"

"Yuna, Rikku, Paine! Come up to the bridge right now! We have something we need to discuss right away! Very urgent!"

The three of them turned to look at one another and sighed as they heard Brother's voice over the intercom system Shinra had built into the Celsius a little while ago. They knew Brother had a habit of greatly over exaggerating things normally, and that they would still have to go up there and see what all the fuss was about.

They walked over to the lift, stopping briefly as the doors slowly slid open automatically to allow them to enter it. Rikku walked over to the controls and pressed the buttons to send the lift to the bridge as the other two walked in, leaning against the metal railings on the side.

"So…What do you think Shinra's doing with that vehicle down there?"

Yuna shook her head from side to side when she heard Rikku's question.

"It's not Shinra's…If it was, it'd be a lot more impressive, with some of his inventions on it somewhere, and that metal plate wouldn't have fallen off to begin with."

"So…Whose is it then? Buddy doesn't travel far outside of the ship, and Brother pretty much owns the Celsius…"

Rikku looked thoughtful for a moment as she contemplated Paine's question, before pointing a finger in the air, a look of sudden realisation across her face.

"Oh, oh! I know, I know! It's gotta belong to Barkeep!"

Yuna and Paine turned to glance at each other, both managing to keep a straight face before Yuna burst out laughing at the thought of Barkeep even trying to ride something like that, with Paine even cracking a little smile across her face as the lift grinded to a halt, the doors sliding open to reveal the corridor to the bridge.

"What? I'm being serious!"

Rikku carried on whining as they walked down the corridor and entered the bridge, all of them looking over at Brother still sitting at the controls to the airship as they walked down the stairs to the clearing used usually for meetings.

"Alright Brother…What have you got to tell us, that is so important, that it required all three of us to come up right now? It better not be about how good Yunie is, otherwise…" Rikku complained,

Brother glanced over his shoulder at the three of them, an irritated look spread across his face.

"I don't know! Buddy said he had something important to talk to you lot about, but refused to tell me what it was! I'm the leader, I should now these things! Buddy should not be making decisions about this ship without me!"

"Crid ib!" A voice shouted out next to them, causing the three of them to cover their ears suddenly with their hands.

The three of them turned around whilst lowering their hands from their ears, as Buddy spun around on a chair next to Shinra, who was working as hard as usual at his terminal, probably examining their most recent sphere discovery. All three of them gave Buddy their full attention, or at least as much as Rikku could, knowing that if Buddy needed to talk about something to them, it would be serious.

Brother grunted before turning back to his controls, turning his focus back on flying the airship.

"Alright then ladies. As you three know, spheres are becoming a lot more common these days for some reason, then they were a few months ago."

The three of them nodded, knowing how true it was. When they'd begun doing the sphere hunting thing, there was about one or two small time spheres activating each day, with a big time sphere usually activating once a week. Now, they were from five to ten spheres a day, one of which was always big time, revealing some long lost secret of Spira.

"As such, it's been getting a little strained for you three, trying to get as many as possible each day. I've thought of splitting you up and going after a sphere each by yourselves, but that's too risky. We're beginning to lose out-"

"Your point is?" Paine interjected, her voice showing a small hint of boredom.

Buddy glanced at Paine, about to say something to her about interrupting not being nice, before thinking twice and sighing loudly as he remembered the last guy unfortunate enough to be condescending towards her, carrying on where he left off. He really didn't want to be stuck in his bed, unable to move at all, for a few weeks.

"Well, after much talking with someone I know, and thinking it over a lot, I've decided….to recruit another member into the Gullwings, to help out with the sphere hunting." Brother spoke quickly, trying to get it all out now.

Yuna and Rikku's jaw dropped, completely shocked at the news, with Paine even looking slightly surprised at the mention of a new member. None of them had been expecting that at all, as they'd always thought the Gullwings would remain as it was, no one leaving or joining till there were no more spheres left to find. Someone new joining them didn't seem right, as if it might spoil what they thought of as their perfect and preferred setup.

The idea of someone new joining them didn't sit too well with Brother either, who spun around at the controls, pointing a finger at Buddy, almost frothing at the mouth from rage of something this big being decided without his consent.

**"YOU WHAT?!! YOU CAN NOT DO THAT!! I AM LEADER, I DECIDE WHO CAN JOIN AND WHO CAN'T!! THE MOMENT THIS NEW PERSON WALKS IN HERE, I'M GOING TO KICK HIM OFF THIS SHIP, WITHOUT EVEN LANDING OR SLOWING DOWN FIRST!!!"** He shouted noisily at Buddy, his voice already beginning to get hoarse and sore.

"Well, now's your chance to do that, as he's been in the room for the past five minutes, listening to this conversation and seeing what your reactions would be like." Brother grumbled, pointing over to the corner of the bridge with his index finger.

Yuna, Rikku and Paine slowly turned around on the spot towards the shadow covered corner, only just now seeing the dark figure standing straight in the corner, unable to see him clearly through the shadows covering it. Brother also glanced over at the corner, and even Shinra spun around on his chair at the terminal to see what was going on, as the figure slowly stepped out of the murky shadows obscuring him, revealing himself to them all for the first time.

_A/N: Alright. My first chapter ever over. Please Read and Review. Any questions, just put them in the review, and I'll answer them when I can. Hope you liked it._

_"Crib Ib" Shut up._


	2. Chapter 2 An explanation overdue

The first thing they noticed about the new member as he walked towards them was his choice of clothing. All they could see of him was a large, very loosely worn, jet black cloak that covered most of his body, making it no surprise that no one had really noticed him hiding over in the shadows of the corner until Buddy had directed everyone's attention towards him.

The cloak he was wearing was pretty plain in design, aside from a silver zipper running straight down the middle of the cloak from top to bottom that was closing it up. At the top of the cloak was a stiff, upright collar that covered the bottom half of their face, with a hood pulled over the head to cover the top half. The small part of their face, around the eye area, that wasn't covered up by the hood or collar, was cast in shadow, making it impossible to see what they looked like. At the bottom of his legs, where the cloak ended, they could see the ends of a baggy jet black pair of trousers and a large, heavy pair of black boots on his feet.

As the new member stepped forward, the three ladies noticed something else about him. The new guy was quite tall, compared to everyone else on the airship at least. Even Paine and Brother were shorter then him, and they were the tallest members of the group. Judging from how the cloak rested on his shoulders, he seemed to be of a muscular build, though there was something slightly off about it that made it different from the usual build.

He walked towards the group slowly, before stopping a short distance away from them, hands in the pockets on his cloak, as his hood covered head turned slowly, examining each member of the Gullwings for a moment, before moving swiftly onto the next member. Each of them felt the eyes peering into them, as if the guy was examining their soul for those few seconds he glanced at them. They couldn't help but shudder with relief when he stopped.

"So….Um….Hi?" Rikku smiled nervously as she waved slowly to the cloaked man, gradually stopping when his attention was focused on her, quiet whimpers slipping between her lips as he turned away from her and sat down on a nearby chair to them.

"Welcome. What's your name?" Yuna asked politely, also smiling at him, before it became a small frown as the guy turned his attention away from the group.

"So….how'd you meet him?" Paine asked quietly to Buddy, not taking her eyes off the new recruit for even a moment.

"Well, it was a little while back. Back when the people of Al Bhed were still hated by pretty much everyone on Spira…" Buddy spoke slowly and quietly, as everyone bowed their heads down slightly, remembering just how bad it used to be for the Al Bhed, rejected by everyone else for their beliefs, having to separate themselves from the rest of the world for almost all of their lives.

"Well, it was during one of our very few trips into Luca. I'd decided to stop at a bar and have a few drinks before we headed off out of Luca and carried on towards Zanarkand. Unfortunately, the moment I entered the place, it was pretty obvious to everyone in there what I was. There was a group in particular, about ten of them, who felt very strongly about Al Bhed being sinners and using machina. They all surrounded me after a few drinks, and were about to beat me pretty badly, when he stepped in front of the way of them." At the last part, he indicated with a thumb towards the guy. Everyone turned around to look at the new guy. He nodded slowly, as if to say this was all true, before leaning back on the chair to gaze at the ceiling. They all turned their attention back to Buddy, who carried on with the story in his usual calm tone.

"He was the only one willing to help me there, even though I was an Al Bhed. Obviously, the group didn't like that much either, and began to attack him instead. It seemed they forgot about for the moment. I took that opportunity and just ran out of there as fast as I could. I stopped running when I was on the opposite side of the street to the bar. I froze when I heard the door to the bar suddenly slam open, and turned around, expecting to see that group chasing after me. Instead, it was that guy. It seemed he'd beaten them all with very little effort on his part. We got talking, me thanking him and all, and we just sort of became friends after that." He nodded at the end, showing that his story was over.

"Ok...But what's he like? We've got how you met, but we know next to nothing about him." Paine inquired quietly, her eyes still on the new member.

"Well, I'd say ask him for yourself, except he's not the talkative type nowadays. Alright, then I'll tell you about him what I know." Buddy shifted on the chair, getting comfortable, before he began talking quickly.

"First off, his name is Axel. He's about the same age as you three, though I'm not positive on that. He's pretty laid back and relaxed most of the time, but this sometimes ventures onto lazy territory. As you've already noticed, he prefers being quiet and not talking to someone, unless he already knows them or really likes them straight away. That's all I know about him that I feel talking about for now, at least whilst he's in the same room as us." Buddy glanced over at Axel uncomfortably. Axel returned the look at Buddy for a moment, before he stood up slowly, getting off the chair as everyone's head turned towards. He strolled briskly over to the stairs, walking up them slowly to the door that lead out to the lift.

"You heading out to the deck?" Buddy shouted out. Axel stopped for a moment to look over his shoulder at all of them, before he nodded and carried on walking out to the corridor, the doors closing almost instantly after he left. Buddy sighed as he carried on staring at the doors for a moment, before turning around to Shinra.

"Alright Shinra. Show them the file." As he said this, Shinra worked away at the control panel in front of him, bringing up a file of Axel that had a large chunk of information about him, several pictures of him, and a few statistics. Curiously, none of the pictures showed him without the hooded cloak off. As the file sprang up onto the screen, Buddy began talking again, mentioning most of the stuff on the file.

"Ok. I've no idea about his ancestry, as he never talks about his family. I'd really recommend you don't bring it up around him. Before you ask about how reliable he is in sphere hunting, the guy's already been doing it for a while. Actually since a bit before the whole craze began. The fact he's been doing it long already shows he's pretty good, but here's the main thing. Before he joined us, he was one of the top ranked sphere hunters in Spira, despite being the only sphere hunter to ever work solo."

"Wait a minute. He never joined a group before us? How did he get around? There's no way he could have an airship if it was just him, and there's no way he could have done it all on foot!" Rikku said loudly, with everyone else wondering the same thing and being too nervous to ask.

"That's correct. As for his ride…" They turned towards Shinra when he spoke up, working furiously at the control panel as he went through various bits and pieces of the file, before a picture came into view of Axel standing besides a familiar looking vehicle, as Shinra went on about it. The three girls turned to each other as they realised it was the same one as the vehicle down in the storage area, the one that they'd almost broken earlier.

"Put simply…It's like a really small version of the Celsius, or a flying version of the land speeders they use outside of Luca. Big enough to carry one, maybe two people tops and some items. Matter of fact, I think it actually can work as a land speeder." Shinra stated as he turned back around towards the group.

"Ok…So if he's able to work by himself, why has he decided to join a group now? And why us?" Paine asked in her usual voice, though it was edged with a hint of interest and curiousness that the others managed to pick up on.

"Axel's always done Sphere hunting for the sense of fun and adventure, and not for the fame or gil. He's said that recently it's become so much of a pain to stop in a town or city every night and rent a room at an inn, that it's beginning to annoy him. When we were striking up a deal, he had only a few things he wanted. First, he was ok with getting a small share of the gil, less then everyone else, if he got a place to stay everynight and free food. Second, he wanted someone that could repair his speeder and check it for free."

"Guess who got stuck with that job." Shinra muttered under his breath as he began to go through Axel's file, searching for anything that they might need to know about him that Buddy hadn't mentioned. Buddy ignored the comment and carried on.

"Third, he requested that he be sent alone on sphere hunts unless he had to have someone with him, as you'd just get in his way. Yes, I know it sounds bad." He said as the other three began to protest about how they wouldn't get in his way, raising his hands in front of him to stop them talking. "It's more of a focus thing then physical. He knows you're good and all, but he'd be distracted by having to worry about you in the middle of a fight if you were with him, due to his style of fighting. Finally, he wanted to be left alone most of the time, and have some privacy during certain things."

"Ok. I can see why he might have had difficulty joining groups with a list like that. But most groups would kill for someone like that, so why'd he choose us in the end?" Paine asked again. The others were slightly surprised, as she never showed this much interest in anything before, even in things that she supposedly liked.

"Simple. We were able to give him everything we wanted. The way he saw it, he'd be in a group with the famous high summoner Yuna, so none of the focus would ever fall onto him. He already had someone he knew well here, me. And finally, he couldn't resist the chance to be in the same group as some of the people who helped defeat Sin." As Buddy finished the sentence, Shinra tapped him on the shoulder, having found what he was looking for. Buddy glanced over his shoulder at the screen, nodding when he saw what it was, before turning back towards the group.

"Ok…One more thing I'd like to know as well. Obviously he's good at sphere hunting. But…how good is he in a fight? I know he helped you, and he must be good if he managed to survive this long on his own, but just what is he like?" Yuna asked. She remembered the times the group had managed to get past many of the obstacles on their journey due to their teamwork, and wondered how anyone could do anything by themselves.

"I was wondering when you'd ask that…Shinra's managed to find what I wanted him to. I've got to warn you…It's not nice. Rikku, you might want to look away." Buddy said as he spun around to face the screen. The three girls looked to each other with quizzical looks, before they all crowded around the screen to get a good view of it, talking to each other about what it could, with Brother rushing over from the controls, shouting at the top of his lungs for them to not start it without him otherwise there'd be hell to pay. A silence fell over the group as the screen lit up, and the contents of the sphere began to run on the screen in front of them.

_A/N: Why did this chapter take so long I hear some of you asking…Actually, none of you asked. At all. Not even a comment about it._

_Anyway. Reason this one took a while was that I lost the file, and thought I'd deleted it by accident somehow. Turned out I'd placed it in the wrong file._

_Please Read and Review, as it's greatly appreciated. Any questions, just put them in the review, and I'll answer them when I can. Hope you like it._


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